Town residents practicing conservation

Written by Brooks Taylor
Friday, 08 March 2013 17:44

The town of Tunica’s move to reinstitute metering of water – and billing by usage, not at a flat rate – is paying off in fairly dramatic fashion, with a drop in overall water usage.Operations director Ellis Koonce said that in 2006, prior to the change, annual municipal water usage was over 389 million gallons. By the end of 2011, after the town started the new rates, annual usage had dropped to 288 million gallons. 2012 saw a further decline, to 228 million gallons, or about 630,000 gallons per day.“It just shows...how much water we were losing,” Koonce said.Koonce explained that leaks in both town lines and lines on private property have been repaired since 2010, and he believes that homeowners are being more cautious with their usage, leading to the decline.